We celebrated the formation of the ec³ hub at our September 16th inauguration ceremony, which brought executives and academics from around the world to MIT campus. We thank everyone who joined us for our presentations and poster/tech demo reception for creating a lively discussion around how multifunctional concrete can enable next-generation sustainability. We offer a…Continue…Continue Reading MIT ec³ hub Hosts Inauguration Ceremony
On a laboratory bench in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a stack of polished cylinders of black-coloured concrete sit bathed in liquid and entwined in cables. To a casual observer, they aren’t doing much. But then Damian Stefaniuk flicks a switch. The blocks of human-made rock are wired up to an LED – and the bulb flickers into…Continue…Continue Reading The cement that could turn your house into a giant battery
The MIT Electron-conductive Cement-based Materials Hub (EC^3 Hub), an outgrowth of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), has been established by a five-year sponsored research agreement with the Aizawa Concrete Corp. In particular, the EC^3 Hub will investigate the infrastructure applications of multifunctional concrete — concrete having capacities beyond serving as a structural element, such as functioning as…Continue…Continue Reading MIT conductive concrete consortium cements five-year research agreement with Japanese industry
MIT researchers say they have developed an energy storage system that could allow homes to store their own power without external batteries and highways to charge electric vehicles as they traveled on the road — no charging stations needed. And the best part, the researchers say, is their system, called a supercapacitor, could be built…Continue…Continue Reading Is cement the solution to storing renewable energy? Engineers at MIT think so.
MIT engineers have created a “supercapacitor” made of ancient, abundant materials, that can store large amounts of energy. Made of just cement, water, and carbon black (which resembles powdered charcoal), the device could form the basis for inexpensive systems that store intermittently renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy. Click to read more….Continue Reading…Continue Reading MIT engineers create an energy-storing supercapacitor from ancient materials
Your future house could have a foundation that’s able to store energy from the solar panels on your roof—without the need for separate batteries. MIT engineers developed the new energy storage technology—a new type of concrete—based on two ancient materials: cement, which has been used for thousands of years, and carbon black, a black powder…Continue…Continue Reading MIT engineers developed a new type of concrete that can store energy
A mixture of cement and charcoal powder could enable houses to store a full day’s worth of energy in their concrete foundations. This new way of creating a supercapacitor – an alternative to batteries that can discharge energy much faster – could be incorporated into the foundations of both buildings and wind turbines. When paired…Continue…Continue Reading Energy-storing concrete could form foundations for solar-powered homes